Video: Get fresh pasta just like grandma used to make at Nonni's

Wednesday

Oct 29, 2008 at 12:01 AMOct 29, 2008 at 5:15 PM

As the dough mutates from a lump of eggs and flour into a thin sheet of ivory pasta, it really is amore. “It’s the way my grandmother used to do it,” said Phil DeDucca, owner of Nonni’s Kitchen and Pasta Shop with wife Cheryl at 1154 Stafford Road in Tiverton.

Deborah Allard

As the dough mutates from a lump of eggs and flour into a thin sheet of ivory pasta, it really is amore.

“It’s the way my grandmother used to do it,” said Phil DeDucca, owner of Nonni’s Kitchen and Pasta Shop with wife Cheryl at 1154 Stafford Road in Tiverton.

DeDucca is at the shop, named for his Italian grandma, every day turning out fresh pasta to sell as-is for the home cook or in the restaurant.

“Pasta is very simple,” DeDucca said. He’s speaking of the simple ingredients, but it also takes time, he said. “It’s labor intensive.”

The culinary possibilities of pasta-making are endless. DeDucca makes herb garlic, whole wheat and tomato basil spaghetti. As for ravioli, there’s goat cheese and herb, pumpkin, spinach, lobster, chourico and mushroom. And, that’s just a sampling of the extensive list of choices.

DeDucca uses a combination of semolina and Durham flour to start the process. Flavors can be added to the dough. Then it’s mixed and stretched through a pasta machine.

“I try to get a nice straight edge to work with,” DeDucca explained as the pasta furled from the machine in a thick ribbon.

Sounds simple, but it wasn’t so for Nonni sans a pasta maker years ago.

“Grandma would roll it out,” DeDucca said. “She’d start with flour, with eggs in the middle. She’d roll and roll and roll and slice it to make spaghetti.”

Every Sunday, it was the same in DeDucca’s childhood.

“We’d pick up bread,” he said. “We’d get there at 6 in the morning. She was up and all the burners were going. The sauce was going.

“She made the pasta on Saturday,” DeDucca continued. “The whole family, a big crowd, came.”
As a child, DeDucca said he once saw a friend eating spaghetti from a can, something he didn’t know existed.

“It was a shock for me,” DeDucca said. “We never even ate in an Italian restaurant.”

DeDucca opened Nonni’s about a year ago. The shop ran as Puerini’s for eight years previously.
DeDucca said he used some of their recipes and added his own. He said he enjoys giving people a “real, real home-cooked meal” for a good price.

A blackboard lists the day’s pastas, all cut to the customer’s specifications, and they can also purchase fresh sauce or prepared chicken and eggplant Parmesan to take home and heat.
In the restaurant, pasta choices are spaghetti, fettuccine, penne or rigatoni with either marinara, Alfredo, pink sauce, meat sauce or meatballs. Prices range from $5.25 to $8.95.

FRESH PASTA
Ingredients
3 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
4 extra-large eggs
Mound the flour in the center of a large wooden cutting board. Make a well in the middle of the flour, add the eggs. Using a fork, beat together the eggs and begin to incorporate the flour starting with the inner rim of the well. As you incorporate the eggs, keep pushing the flour up to retain the well shape (do not worry if it looks messy). The dough will come together in a shaggy mass when about half of the flour is incorporated.
Start kneading the dough with both hands, primarily using the palms of your hands. Add more flour, in 1/2-cup increments, if the dough is too sticky. Once the dough is a cohesive mass, remove the dough from the board and scrape up any left over dry bits. Lightly flour the board and continue kneading for three more minutes. The dough should be elastic and a little sticky. Continue to knead for another three minutes, remembering to dust your board with flour when necessary. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and set aside for 20 minutes at room temperature. Roll and form as desired.
Note: Do not skip the kneading or resting portion of this recipe; they are essential for a light pasta.
(Recipe from Chef Mario Batali of “Molto Mario” on the Food Network)